The present invention generally relates to trimming and cutting devices, such as shears and pruners. More particularly, the present invention relates to a rose pruning and stripping device, wherein leaves, small stems, and thorns can be quickly and easily removed from the larger stem of the flower, such as a rose.
When making a floral presentation, leaves on a lower portion of the stem of a flower are typically removed, so as to avoid water degradation. It is known that the leaves, if allowed to be submerged in the water, degrade over time resulting in bacterial contamination of the water. Moreover, aside from making a flower arrangement in a vase full of water, it is often desirable and aesthetically pleasing to have the lower leaves removed.
This is particularly the case with roses, such as long stem roses and the like. When purchasing roses, the lower leaves and thorns typically have already been removed. This is to provide the benefits described above, and give the bouquet of roses an aesthetically pleasing appearance. Home gardeners who cut roses from their own bushes oftentimes remove the small stems, leaves, and thorns for the same purposes. Of course, with roses, the thorns are not only aesthetically displeasing, but are dangerous to those handling the roses. The thorns can easily puncture the skin, sometimes resulting in infection. Thus, when preparing the roses for display and/or sale, these are removed. However, the removal of such leaves, stems and thorns is very complicated and time consuming. Typically, a small knife or a pair of scissors is used to individually remove the thorns and leaves. This can still easily lead to punctures of the skin while handling the rose to remove the leaves and thorns.
There do exist devices configured to serve as strippers. For example, there are wire cutters and strippers, wherein the handle portion contains one or more apertures of relatively small size configured to cut into the insulation sheath of a wire and remove the insulation sheath so as to expose the metal wire. Some of the apertures are actually intended to cut a cable or wire. For example, United States Patent Application Publication U.S. 2005/0198832A1 to Chin-Ching Hsien discloses a multi-functional engineering clipper. This clipper includes a set of jaws which can cut metal, and two apertures formed when the handles are brought towards one another for stripping or cutting cables, wires and the like. However, this device, and others like it, do not lend themselves to pruning and stripping roses, as described above. For example, the Hsien publication discloses a relatively large tool that requires two hands to operate and is designed to cut relatively large cables. Even single-handed wire clippers would not function well in pruning or stripping roses. This is due to the fact that the blades are typically not pruning blades, but rather adapted to cut metal wire. Moreover, the apertures are typically circular and of relatively small dimension which could damage, and even cut, the rose stem.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,086,081 to Hollenbeck discloses garden shears having notches formed in each jaw so as to form a generally circular aperture when brought towards one another. However, the aperture of these garden shears is intended and designed to facilitate the cutting of comparatively large plants. U.S. Pat. No. 1,322,085 to Bertrand discloses a flower shears and stripper. However, the flower shears include relatively flat blades, similar to a pair of scissors, which are not ideal for pruning or shearing. Moreover, the stripping aperture is formed at the end of the device, either by means of an attachment, or forming of notches at the very end of the cutting jaws. This aperture is generally circular. It has been found by the present inventor that the placement of the stripping aperture at the end of the jaws makes it difficult to control the stripping of the leaves and thorns from the flower. Moreover, a circular aperture can damage the flower stem, and in some cases inadvertently cut the flower stem.
Accordingly, there is a continuing need for a device for not only trimming or pruning roses, but also easily stripping the thorns and leaves from the lower portion of the flower stem. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides other related advantages.